The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. The opposite of happiness is not sadness but boredom. And the opposite of rich is not poor but barren.
The first two are obvious; most of us have had someone we love that hurts us so badly we hate them. That is just the other side of the same coin--the yin of it's yang. We have all had moments of happiness, sometimes amazing happiness, and times of utter sadness. But the hardest to withstand day after day is boredom. Boredom makes people quit jobs that pay well for their lives, and leave marriages that they sincerely wanted to work or worse, make them turn off their brains. Boredom feels like it kills brain cells and dulls everything.
But the last, rich and poor vs barren--what is that supposed to mean? Barren is the opposite of fertile and therefore the opposite of productive or creative. While not all people choose to have children, the couple that wants them but can't feels they are missing the full richness of life--despite the evidence that kids are actually a lot of work with no guarantees of any pay-off at all.
While people with massive amounts of cash and properties--both real (and not so real), are always called rich by everyone; people that created things, made things, used their imaginations, volunteered to help others, or teach others, producing things both ordinary and sublime, frequently describe the richness of their lives but rarely are described that way by any except close friends and family.
But the last, rich and poor vs barren--what is that supposed to mean? Barren is the opposite of fertile and therefore the opposite of productive or creative. While not all people choose to have children, the couple that wants them but can't feels they are missing the full richness of life--despite the evidence that kids are actually a lot of work with no guarantees of any pay-off at all.
While people with massive amounts of cash and properties--both real (and not so real), are always called rich by everyone; people that created things, made things, used their imaginations, volunteered to help others, or teach others, producing things both ordinary and sublime, frequently describe the richness of their lives but rarely are described that way by any except close friends and family.
We need to make the definition mean everything it used to.
having abundant possessions and especially material wealth
2
a : having high value or quality
b : well supplied or endowed <a city rich in traditions>
3
: magnificently impressive : sumptuous
4
a : vivid and deep in color <a rich red>
b : full and mellow in tone and quality <a rich voice>
c : having a strong fragrance <rich perfumes>
5
: highly productive or remunerative <a rich mine>
6
a : having abundant plant nutrients <rich soil>
b : highly seasoned, fatty, oily, or sweet <rich foods>
c : high in the combustible component <a rich fuel mixture>
d : high in some component <cholesterol-rich foods>
7
a : entertaining; also : laughable
b : meaningful, significant <rich allusions>
c : lush <rich meadows>
8
: pure or nearly pure <rich lime>
While we know about rich soil, the opposite being called poor but meaning barren--incapable of producing anything, we rarely considered the richness of people in any terms but materialism--until they are old and facing death.
We want our children to become rich, it was the american dream--getting rich. The millionaire was the standard, although the unspoken inflation that has made a car that used to cost 3000$ new now cost 30,000$ and a house go from 25,000$ for a basic starter to at least 80,000$ for a basic starter that needs work and comes with a iffy neighborhood. A millionaire is not middle-class, but only barely not. You need at least 10,000,000$ to be "well-to-do" secure in your standing/position in life. If your job has a retirement advisor, they will make sure you know that you can't retire with a measly 500,000$ saved. (What? that is 10 years of my salary! What?)
Our society has been all about the money for a while. And while some wise folks have figured out that it is not what it is all about, and lived their lives with a different goal, there have always been a large number of our population that can never even acquire enough for the basics, food, water, shelter, weather-appropriate clothes, medicine when sick and therefore they never get the opportunity to find out what true riches are. Barely surviving is life-sucking. If you have ever almost drowned, then you know that you were not enjoying the beautiful view while treading water and trying to keep your nose above the waves. All energy went one place. Drowning people are desperate, they will try to use their fellow drowning victims as flotation devices. They will bargain with god, and curse their own mothers and anyone else they can blame for the position they are in. And they will take other's down with them. Its not evil, or meanness or even cowardice, but just pure panicky fear. Most creatures when placed in a position where they think there might be a way to survive and get on with their life will do the same (a few won't, but they are rare heroes).
The people generally described as rich, tend to act like they believe that in some way they are worth more, their life if more valuable, their ideas more important, their contributions to society more meaningful. They are frequently jerks or worse.
Rich people gave us cars and computers and tv and professional sports---of course they didn't really give them to us, they sold them to us and got rich doing so. The people working for them are unknown unless they happened to be a name that was being sold. Some professional athletes and actors and directors and CEO's also get rich when we buy those things, but the guy that put your car together didn't get rich, and the man that ran the camera or put on the monster makeup or sold the hotdogs or swept the stadium or showed you how to program your smart phone, that person didn't get rich.
Who decides who profits and who gets by. Artists have always known that the difference between a 50$ painting and a 5,000,000$ painting is a patron. A patron with some money can help you find an audience of higher paying customers and a patron that blows millions on a whim can make you rich also. For some reason, if rich man #1 wants a painting by Joe Blow, then rich man #2 and #3 also want one, only bigger or more expensive.
At any rate, the man or woman with millions and billions is not necessarily the one to die rich. At the end of it all, the richest is the one with the best memories, the most loved-ones, the wisest wisdoms and that ended up getting the chance to create all those things that lived in their head. Use the rich and creative and productive mind and soul you were born with--die rich.
The people generally described as rich, tend to act like they believe that in some way they are worth more, their life if more valuable, their ideas more important, their contributions to society more meaningful. They are frequently jerks or worse.
Rich people gave us cars and computers and tv and professional sports---of course they didn't really give them to us, they sold them to us and got rich doing so. The people working for them are unknown unless they happened to be a name that was being sold. Some professional athletes and actors and directors and CEO's also get rich when we buy those things, but the guy that put your car together didn't get rich, and the man that ran the camera or put on the monster makeup or sold the hotdogs or swept the stadium or showed you how to program your smart phone, that person didn't get rich.
Who decides who profits and who gets by. Artists have always known that the difference between a 50$ painting and a 5,000,000$ painting is a patron. A patron with some money can help you find an audience of higher paying customers and a patron that blows millions on a whim can make you rich also. For some reason, if rich man #1 wants a painting by Joe Blow, then rich man #2 and #3 also want one, only bigger or more expensive.
At any rate, the man or woman with millions and billions is not necessarily the one to die rich. At the end of it all, the richest is the one with the best memories, the most loved-ones, the wisest wisdoms and that ended up getting the chance to create all those things that lived in their head. Use the rich and creative and productive mind and soul you were born with--die rich.
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